frankie's - 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die List

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Set in the 1930's this intricate comedy caper deals with an ambitious small time crook (Robert Redford) and a veteran con man (Paul Newman) who seeks revenge on the vicious crime lord (Robert Shaw) who murdered one of their gang.

How this group of charlatans puts "the sting" on their enemy makes for the greatest double-crosses in movie history, complete with an amazing surprise finish.

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After the French New Wave, the sexual revolution, and the upheavals of May 1968 came the near religiously revered magnum opus by Jean Eustache.

In his long-unavailable body of work, ranging from documentaries about his native village to closely autobiographical narrative films, Eustache pioneered a forthright and fearless brand of realism. The pinnacle of this innovative style, The Mother and the Whore follows Alexandre (Jean-Pierre Léaud), a Parisian pseudo-intellectual who lives with his tempestuous girlfriend, Marie (Bernadette Lafont), even as he begins a dalliance with the sexually liberated Veronika (Françoise Lebrun), leading the three into an emotionally turbulent love triangle. Through daringly sustained long takes and confessional dialogue, Eustache captures a generation navigating the disillusionment of the 1970s, and in the process achieves an intimacy so deep it cuts.

In 1959, Kit (Martin Sheen) who has killed several people, and his new girlfriend Holly (Sissy Spacek), who watched him do it, are adrift in a double fantasy of crime and punishment across South Dakota and Montana. They're playing make-believe but the bullets and bloodshed are very real...

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This Academy Award nominated classic, directed by George Lucas and produced by Francis Ford Coppola, features the coming of age of four teenagers on their last summer night before college.

Rediscover drag racing, driveins and Inspiration Point in this nostalgic look back at the early '60s that also brings you an incredible soundtrack with the most memorable rock 'n' roll hits of the era. Starring Harrison Ford, Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard and Charlie Martin Smith, American Graffiti captures the heart and spirit of America's last age of innocence.

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Imprisoned on infamous Devil's Island, Papillon (Steve McQueen) is obsessed with the idea of freedom. Together with his friend Dega (Dustin Hoffman), Papillon ceaselessly works on means of escape, his spirit refusing to be broken by savage and humiliating treatment from their captors.

One of the few epic films which more than lives up to the promise of the greatest best seller on which it is based - aided by the unforgettable performances of Hoffman and McQueen. A must-see classic!

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Thirty years following his untimely death, Bruce Lee remains the movies' supreme martial-arts star. His masterful final film 'Enter the Dragon' stands the test of time as the most beloved martial-arts epic in film history.

For its 30th anniversary, this heart-pounding adventure returns to deluxe double-disc edition featuring several mesmerizing documentary extras that examine Lee's family life and incredible achievements, including Dragon producer Fred Weintraub's new retrospective on the making of this benchmark action movie, with newly discovered unseen vault footage of Lee in action. What a kick!

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Robert De Niro and Harvey Keitel star as Johnny Boy and Charlie; Italian-American cousins and small time criminals hustling, fighting and carousing, doing whatever it takes to survive in the mean streets of New York.

Johnny Boy spends his life getting into trouble, leaving Charlie to get him out of it. Charlie wants to rise up in the local mafia, but when Johnny Boy reneges on a debt, the local loan shark seeks revenge.

When private eye Philip Marlowe (Elliott Gould) is visited by an old friend, this sets in train a series of events in which he's hired to search for a missing novelist (Sterling Hayden) and finds himself on the wrong side of vicious gangsters.

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When a young girl mysteriously disappears, Police Sergeant Howie (Edward Woodward) travels to a remote island to investigate.

But this pastoral community, led by the strange Lord Summerisle (Christopher Lee), is not what it seems as the devout Christian detective soon uncovers a secret society of wanton lust and pagan blasphemy. Can Howie now stop the cult's ultimate sacrifice before he himself comes face to face with the horror of 'The Wicker Man'?

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At the Victorine Studios in Nice, a French movie-maker, Ferrand (Francois Truffaut) starts shooting his latest film: "Meet Pamela". As ever, this proves eventful from the outset: ups and downs on the shoot, actors whims, complicated love-lives and the producer putting on the pressure...

Ferrand wonders whether his film will ever get made. In 'Day for Night', Truffaut provides the answer to the question asked by all film lovers "what goes on behind the cameras?". He films the shoot as it really is, straightforwardly, without artefacts, with honesty and accuracy, making it seem like a documentary. Often funny, sometimes tragic, 'Day for Night' is one of Truffaut's most autobiographical films and won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 1973.

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On a cold, bright autumn day in Suffolk, England, a little girl in a red mackintosh drowns in a pond-the daughter of John (Donald Sutherland) and Laura Baxter (Julie Christie).

Trying to recover from the tragedy, the couple arrive in Venice, Italy, where John has been commissioned to restore a church. In the eerie atmosphere of the lagoon city in winter, they encounter two strange sisters. Laura is suddenly released from her grief when one of them, a blind psychic, tells her that she is in contact with her dead daughter. Angered and sceptical, John carries on with his work, but witnesses an unsettling vision of his own: a little girl in a red mackintosh disappearing into the Venetian alleys. As Venice and his fate close in on John, illusion, reality and sudden terror spiral the story to its grotesque climax.

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When cryogenically preserved Miles Monroe (Woody Allen) is awakened 200 years after a hospital mishap, he discovers the future's not so bright: All women are frigid, all men are impotent, and the world is ruled by an evil dictator: a disembodied nose! Pursued by the secret police and recruited by

anti-government rebels with a plan to kidnap the dictator's snout before it can be cloned, Miles falls for the beautiful - but untalented - poet Luna (Diane Keaton). But when Miles is captured and reprogrammed by the government to believe he's Miss America, it's up to Luna to save Miles, lead the rebels and cut off the nose…just to spite its face.

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A plainclothes street patrolman, Frank Serpico (Al Pacino) might be the best cop in New York, but he's unwilling to play dirty and give into the police corruption surrounding drugs, violence, and kickbacks that his colleagues indulge in every day.

When he decides to expose those around him, Frank finds himself a target - not just to the city's criminals, but to his own peers.

The belief in evil - and that evil can be cast out. From these two strands of faith, author William Peter Blatty and director William Friedkin wove The Exorcist, the frightening and realistic story of an innocent girl inhabited by a malevolent entity.

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Carfree artist Erik Vonk lives a life of excess. Existing according to his own rules, he pursues women with an almost predatory glee. But everything changes when he meets the beautiful and sexually voracious Olga. Caught in a whirlwind of intense erotic pleasure, the couple decide to marry.

Soon, however, events take an unforeseen and tragic turn, and Erik is left facing the most difficult choice of his life.